Detailed Syllabus
Compulsory Core
language units
Spanish language 1 [130HS18]
Competence in the main grammatical structures of Spanish;
narration and description; listening comprehension and descriptive
oral presentation.
Spanish language 2 [130HS19]
Exposition of ideas and argumentation; elementary translation
(non-literary); reformulation of texts.
Prerequisite: 103HS18
Spanish language 3 [130HS20]
Use of Spanish in different contexts; intermediate translation
(non-literary); guided composition.
Prerequisite: 103HS19
Further
introductory units
Introduction to
medieval literature [130HS03]
This unit will concentrate on a representative selection of texts
from the 13th to 15th centuries, covering some of the major types
of verse and prose composition. Texts studied will include:
Poema de mío Cid; Berceo, Milagros de Nuestra Señora;
Alfonso del Sabio (a selection); Juan Manuel, El Conde
Lucanor; Juan Ruiz, Libro de buen amor; Diego de San Pedro,
Cárcel de amor; Ballads (a selection).
Tradition and innovation in Golden Age prose and drama
[130H04A]
The unit will trace the shift in focus in prose fiction from the
romantic hero to the comic anti-hero and a kind of comic realism,
while the contemporary theatre, with its more rigid hierarchy of
characters, remains more consciously escapist. Areas covered will
include the chivalric romance, the picaresque novel, and selected
plays of Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina and Calderón de la Barca.
Texts studied will include:
Fernando de Rojas, Tragicomedia de Calisto y Meliben (Celistina);
García Rodríguez de Montalvo, Amadís de Gaula;
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quijote, La ilustre fregona,
Pedro de Urdemalas; Anonymous, La vida de Lazarillo de
Tormes; Francisco de Quevedo, El buscón; Lope de
Vega Carpio, Peribáñez y el comendador de Ocaña, Fuenteovejuna,
El perro del hortelano; Tirso de Molina, El burlador de
Sevilla, El condenado por desconfiado; Calderón de la Barca,
La dama duende, La vida es sueño, El
alcalde de Zalamea.
Introduction to 19th- and 20th-century narrative [130H06A]
A survey of different narrative forms and critical approaches to
narrative based on the study of a wide range of Spanish and Latin
American fictional and cinematic texts. Topics covered include:
time, space, narrative point of view, character, plot, genre,
self-reflexivity. You should select approximately 10 of the texts
listed below for detailed study. The films can be bought on video,
but may be omitted if you have difficulty obtaining them. Texts
studied will include:
Spanish:
Rosalía de Castro, La hija del mar (novel, 1859); Benito
Pérez Galdos, La de Bringas (novel, 1884); Leopoldo Alas,
La Regenta (novel, 1884–5); Miguel de Unamuno, Niebla
(novel, 1914); Camilo José Cela, La familia de Pascual Duarte
(novel, 1942); Rosa Chacel, Memorias de Leticia Valle
(novel, 1946); Mercè Rodoreda, La Plaza del Diamante
(novel 1962; Catalan original La Plaça del Diamant); Luis
Buñuel, El ángel exterminador (film, 1962); Juan
Goytisolo, Señas de identidad (novel, 1966); Julio
Llamazares, La lluvia amarilla (novel, 1988); Ray Loriga,
Lo peor de todo (novel, 1992); Pedro Almodóvar, La
flor de mi secreto (film, 1996)
Latin American:
Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, Sab (Cuba, novel, 1841);
Rómulo Gallegos, Doña Bárbara; Jorge Luis Borges,
Ficciones (Argentina, stories, comprises El jardin de los
senderos que se bifurcan, 1941, and Artificios,
1944); Juan Rulfo, El llano en llamas (Mexico, stories,
1953); Rosario Castellanos, Balún-Canán (Mexico, novel,
1957); Julio Cortázar, Ceremonias (Argentina, stories,
comprises Final del juego, 1956, and Las armas
secreta, 1959, which can also be bought separately); Carlos
Fuentes, La muerte de Artemio Cruz (Mexico, novel, 1960);
Manuel Puig, The Buenos Aires Affair (Argentina, novel,
1973); Mario Vargas Llosa, La tía Julia y el escribidor
(Peru, novel, 1978); Gabriel García Márquez, Crónica de una
muerte anunciada (Colombia, novella, 1981); Diamela Eltit,
Vaca sagrada (Chile, novel, 1991); Guillermo del Toro,
Cronos (Mexico, film, 1992).
The essay in Latin America
[130HS08]
A survey of the essay in Latin America from the post-Independence
period to the present. The unit will concentrate on three aspects
of the essay in this context:
a. as literary form
b. as political intervention
c. as cultural text.
Texts studied will include:
Simón Bolívar, Carta de Jamaica; Domingo Faustino
Sarmiento, Facundo, Civilización y barbarie; José Martí,
Nuestra América, Madre América; José Enrique
Rodó, Ariel; Manuel González Prada, Nuestros indios,
El intelectual y el obrero; Rafael Barrett, Lo que son
los yerbales; Alfonso Reyes, Visión de Anahuac;
Leopoldo Lugones, La patria fuerte, El discurso de Ayacucho;
José Carlos Mariátegui, Siete ensayos de interpretación
de la realidad peruana, El hombre y el mito; Aníbel Ponce,
La cuestión indígena y la cuestión nacional; Víctor Raúl
Haya de la Torre, Qué es el APRA?, El APRA como partido, No
nos avergoncemos de llamarnos indoamericanos, Octavio Paz,
El laberinto de la soledad, Posdata; Ernesto ‘Che’
Guevara, El socialismo y el hombre; Roberto Fernández
Retamar, Calibán; Carlos Monsiváis, Días de guardar;
Beatriz Sarlo, Los militares y la historia: Contra los
perros del olvido; Carlos Altamirano, El intelectual en
la represión y en la democracia; Roberto Schwarz,
Brazilian Culture: Nationalism by Elimination, Misplaced Ideas:
Literature and Society in Late Nineteenth Century Brazil;
Néstor García Canclini, Contradicciones latinoamericanas:
modernismo sin modernización?
Specialised
options
Medieval love poetry [130HS11]
The unit will be concerned with the development of various types
of Peninsular love poetry from the 11th century to the 15th
century, including courtly love poetry, women’s voice poems and
love allegories. Texts studied will include:
Kharjas (selection); Cantigas de amigo and cantigas
de amor (selection); Razón de amor con los denuestos del
agua y el vino; Cancionero de Baena (selection);
Suero de Ribera, Misa de amor; Juan de Dueñas, Misa
de amores; Rodrigo Cota, Diálogo entre el Amor y un viejo;
Marqués de Santillana, Poesías completas, I, ed.
Manuel Durán (Clásicos Castalia, 64, Madrid: Castalia): read
canciones, Triunphete de Amor, El Sueño, Infierno de los
enamorados.
All texts except the last will be made available in
duplicated form.
Prerequisite: 103HS03
The struggle of modernity in 20th century Spanish culture
[130HS16]
(Note: may not be offered by
students who have passed 'National identity in modern Spain')
The unit will examine some of the tensions and struggles related
to the modernization of Spanish society and culture throughout the
twentieth century. It will also study the rise and decline of a
myth of Spanish national identity illustrated in the work of the
1898 writers and later appropriated by the Franco regime.
This course will include discussions of novels, poetry, theatre
and films. The study of the films included in this unit is
optional. Texts and films studied will include:
Pío Baroja, Camino de perfección; Antonio Machado,
Campos de Castilla; José Ortega y Gasset, España
invertebrada; Ramón Valle-Inclan, Luces de Bohemia;
Federico García Lorca, Comedia sin título; Jose Luís
Saenz de Heredia, Raza (film); Ken Loach, Tierra y
Libertad (film); Luis Martín-Santos, Tiempo de silencio;
Juan Goytisolo, Reivindicación del conde don Julian;
Victor Erice, El espíritu de la colmena (film); Manuel
Vazquez Montalbán, El pianista; Julio Llamazares, La
lluvia amarilla; Pedro Almodóvar, Matador (film).
Literature
and the nation in Latin America [130HS17]
The unit will explore the relation between literary narrative and
the political and cultural projects of nation formation. A range
of countries will be discussed, with Mexico and Argentina singled
out as detailed case studies. Novels written by such authors as
Mariano Azuela, Juan Rulfo and Elena Poniatowska will be studied
in the light of the Mexican Revolution; and others written by
Tomás Eloy Martínez, Manuel Puig and Ricardo Piglia in the light
of the Argentine military dictatorship of 1976–1983. The unit aims
to show how nations in Latin America are complex cultural and
historical formations that are periodically fought over and
redefined. Texts studied will include:
Mariano Azuela, Los de abajo; José Revueltas, El luto
humano, El apando; Nelie Campobello, Cartucho; Juan
Rulfo, Pedro Páramo; Octavio Paz, El laberinto de la
soledad; Carlos Fuentes, La muerte de Artemio Cruz;
Elena Poniatowska, Hasta no verte Jesús mío; Horacio
Verbitsky, Medio siglo de proclamas militares; Rodolfo
Walsh, Carta abierta de un escritor a la junta militar;
Manuel Puig, Pubis angelical; Tomás Eloy Martínez, La
novela de Perón; Ricardo Piglia, Respiración artificial;
Andrés Rivera, La revolución es un sueño eterno; José
María Arguedas, Los ríos profundos; Augusto Roa Bastos,
Hijo de hombre.
Spanish language 4 [130HS21]
Advanced translation (literary and non-literary); creative
writing; textual commentary.
Prerequisite: 103HS19
Women in
the prose and drama of the Golden Age [130HS22]
The unit will explore the complex image of woman which emerges in
the 16th and 17th centuries, embracing such antithetical types as
the Celestinas, and the courtly and Platonic ideals of femininity.
Appropriate reference will be made to historians and moralists in
an effort to place the women of fiction in their socio-historical
context. A part of the unit will be devoted to an analysis of two
very different women writers – the mystic Santa Teresa de Jesús
and the short-story writer María de Zayas y Sotomayor. Texts
studied will include:
Fray Luis de León, La perfecta casada; Juan Luis Vives,
La instrucción della mujer cristiana; Fernando de Rojas,
La Celestina; Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don
Quijote (extracts), La gitanilla, La española inglesa, El celoso
extremeño; Santa Teresa de Jesús, Libro de la vida;
María de Zayas y Sotomajor, Desengaños amorosos; Lope de
Vega Carpio, La dama boba, La moza de cántaro, El castigo sin
venganza; Tirso de Molina, Don Gil de las calzas verdes,
Marta la piadosa; Calderón de la Barca,
El pintor de su deshonra, A secreto agravio,
secreta venganza, El médico de su honra.
Prerequisite: 103HS04A
Spanish women
writers and the Canon [130HS23]
This unit takes you through the literature and culture of
nineteenth- and twentieth-century Spain by focusing on the work of
women writers who, in many cases, have remained completely unknown
to the canon. The course will systematically ask what the reasons
are for such absences or, more generally, will question the
relation of women to the canon and, consequently, how canons
arbitrate between those who will become part of history and those
will remain silent and forgotten. Through its focus on women, the
course should enable you to acquire a deeper understanding of how
national canons work, how they are formed, instituted and changed,
and how they affect and are affected by the historical moment in
which they are produced, made dominant and perpetuated. It will
also, in a way, provide you with an 'alternative' canon, to the
extent that the women's texts studied here conform to a history of
Spanish literature too. The intention of the course, however, is
not to substitute one for the other, but to make you aware of the
existence of these other writers as well as to encourage you to
reflect upon their place in contemporary history and in the
history of modern Spanish literature. Prescribed texts:
Carmen Baroja: Recuerdos de una mujer de la generación del 98;
Carmen de Burgos: La flor de la playa y otras novelas cortas;
Fernán Caballero (Cecilia Böhl de Faber): La gaviota;
Rosalía de Castro: El caballero de las botas azules; Rosa
Chacel: Memorias de Leticia Valle; Gertrudis Gómez de
Avellaneda: Sab; Angela Grassi: El copo de nieve;
Susan Kirkpatrick (ed.): Antología poética de escritores del
siglo XIX; Carmen Laforet: Nada; Carmen Martín Gaite:
Entre visillos; Emilia Pardo Bazán: La mujer española
y otros escritos; Emilia Pardo Bazán: La tribuna;
Mercè Rodoreda: La plaza del diamante.
Prerequisite: 103HS04A
Modernity
and the avant-garde in Latin America [130HS28]
A survey of the effects of rapid modernisation on artistic
practices in Latin America during the 1920s and 1930s. Whilst the
unit will focus on the different forms adopted by the avant-garde
in literature and painting, it will also situate such practices in
the wider context of political and cultural projects of modernity
in the region – both in the post-independence period (Sarmiento)
and in the 1960s and 1970s. Texts studied will include:
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Facundo, Civilización y barbarie;
Euclides da Cunha, Rebellion in the Backlands; Ruben
Darío, Azul, Prosas profanas; José Martí Versos
sencillos; Manuel Maples Arce, Urbe, Super-poema
bolchevique en 5 cantos; Oliveira Girondo, Veinte poemas
para ser leídos en el tranvía; César Vallego, Trilce;
Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros:
Muralism; Frida Kahlo: Paintings; Mario de Andrade,
Macunaíma (in English translation); Jorge Luis Borges,
Fervor de Buenos Aires, Luna de enfrente; Roberto Arlt,
El juguete rabioso, Aguafuertes porteños; José María
Arguedas, El zorro de arriba y el zorro de abajo; Julio
Cortázar, Rayuela.
Culture and society
in modern Spain [130HS29]
The unit will focus on four areas, each raising different issues
about the relationship between culture and society:
a. Woman and society in the 19th-century novel.
Texts studied will include:
Emilia Pardo Bazán, Los pazos de Ulloa; Benito Pérez
Galdós Fortunata y Jacinta; Leopoldo Alas, La Regenta.
b. The destabilisation of identity in drama and film of the
1920s and 1930s.
Texts studied will include:
Ramón del Valle-Inclán, Luces de Bohemia, Los cuernos de don
Friolera; Federico García Lorca, Así que pasen cinco años,
Amor de don Perlimplín con Belisa en su jardín, Luis Buñuel
and Salvador Dalí, Un Chien andalou (film, optional),
L’Age d’or (film, optional).
c. Literature and art of the Spanish Civil War.
Texts studied will include:
Carlos Bauer (ed.), Cries from a Wounded Madrid, Poetry of the
Spanish Civil War (bilingual anthology); Miguel Hernández,
Viento del pueblo, El hombre acecha; César Vallejo,
España, aparta de mí este cáliz (published together with
Poemas humanos); Rafael Alberti, Radio Sevilla
(agitprop theatre – will be made available in duplicated form).
d. Responses to censorship in post-war fiction and film.
Texts studied will include:
Juan Goytisolo, Duelo en el Paraíso; Luis Martín-Santos,
Tiempo de silencio; Juan Marsé, Si te dicen que caí;
Víctor Erice, El espíritu de la colmena (film, optional);
Carlos Saura, La caza (film, optional).
Exhibiting the
nation in Latin America [130HS30]
(Note: Internet access is
required for this unit as some of the exercises are based on a
website).
The unit will study the ways in which national identities have
been constructed by way of the display of material objects in
nineteenth and early twentieth-century Latin America. It
introduces students to the analysis of collections and exhibitions
as cultural forms, and discusses several of the genres of display
which were predominant during the period: natural history,
anthropology, history, and fine arts. The subject will focus
mainly on the cases of Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, and visual
material will be sourced from the online exhibition 'Relics and
Selves: Iconographies of the National in Argentina, Brazil and
Chile, 1880-1890’. Texts studied will include:
Florentino Ameghino: La antigüedad del hombre en el Plata
(1881); Tony Bennett: The Birth of the Museum: History,
Theory, Politics (1995); Ruben Dario: La Exposición
(1900); Didier Maleuvre: Museum Memories: History, Technology,
Art (1999); Francisco P. Moreno: El Museo de La Plata.
Rápida ojeada sobre su fundación y desarrollo (1890-91);
Lilia Moritz Schwarcz: The Spectacle of the Races: Scientists,
Institutions and the Race Question in Brazil, 1870-1930
(1999); Nicholas Shumway: The Invention of Argentina
(1991); Allen Woll: A Functional Past: the Uses of History in
Nineteenth-Century Chile (1982).
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